Press Releases

Restore the "Free" to " Free Secular and Universal" Public Education

Press Release 599

The latest migration of Asian students into our public education institutions should be welcomed so long as education remains ‘free’. Our public schools should remain openly accessible without fees, and without any entrance requirements. Once barriers are introduced, the essential nature of our great public systems are badly compromised.

Religion Costs Australia $31 billion in Taxation Expenditures

Press Release 598

The following is a letter to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald penned by Max Wallace which was not printed.

DOGS note that the $31 billion per year in taxation expenditures foregone because of ‘religious’ exemptions would provide Australia with public education and health systems second to none.

Victoria: The Private Education State Run by DLP Labor Government

Press Release 597

In a 50 word letter to The Age, 7 May 2015, one correspondent suggested that the Government should not put “Victoria: The Education State’ on car registration plates, but rather ‘Victoria the Private Education State.

In the last week, some public school supporters have been prepared to blow the whistle on what has REALLY happened to the DLP. It appeared to fade away. Not so. Santamaria’s children from the Democratic Labor Party of the 1950s have offspring – Santamaria’s grandchildren in the current Labor – and Coalition Parties. The influence of erstwhile members of the DLP and their fellow travellers is obvious at the highest levels of the Federal Government. But Victorians are starting to wake up to the influence of Santamaria’sgrandchildren in the Victorian Labor Government.

Victoria: The Private Education State run by DLP Labor Government

Press Release 597

In a 50 word letter to The Age, 7 May 2015, one correspondent suggested that the Government should not put “Victoria: The Education State’ on car registration plates, but rather ‘Victoria the Private Education State.

In the last week, some public school supporters have been prepared to blow the whistle on what has REALLY happened to the DLP. It appeared to fade away. Not so. Santamaria’s children from the Democratic Labor Party of the 1950s have offspring – Santamaria’s grandchildren in the current Labor – and Coalition Parties. The influence of erstwhile members of the DLP and their fellow travellers is obvious at the highest levels of the Federal Government. But Victorians are starting to wake up to the influence of Santamaria’sgrandchildren in the Victorian Labor Government.

Separation of Church and State: Is the Wall Crumbling? Edd Doerr's column‏ in America

Press Release 594

God, Schools, and Government Funding by Laurence H. Winer and Nina J. Crimm. Ashgate, 2015, 281 pp, $119.95.

Winer and Crimm trace in meticulous detail, with over a thousand footnotes, the evolution (or devolution) of the Supreme Court’s rulings on every conceivable angle for diverting public funds to special interest faith-based private schools, a very gradual process at first but one that has accelerated in recent years to the point where today the financial wall of separation may be crumbling to pieces. While this book was written by law professors for law professors and law students (hence the high list price), the basic text is readily accessible to all readers. The authors analyze school vouchers, various forms of tax credit aid, and the latest gimmick, Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) and their variants, and then disect how the High Court has not only whittled away at separation but also undermined the “standing” rights of citizens and taxpayers to even bring challenges to church-state separation violation in the courthouse door.